February 23

February 24, 2015. Fruitbat Factory is happy to announce the release of our third and final DLC for 99 Spirits: 99 Spirits - Weeping Demon's Bell. The game is available today.

Weeping Demon's Bell is the second side story for 99 Spirits, told in the Visual Novel style, similar to Cage of Night.

“As our first Steam release, 99 Spirits has a special place in our hearts. We are happy to have had the rare chance to localise all the available bonus content for the game as well. With Weeping Demon’s Bell, the 99 Spirits collection is now truly complete. ” says Jakke Elonen, Project Lead.

SynopsisRumors of someone collecting swords and kidnapping girls have reached the young blacksmith Kotetsu and his childhood friend Waka. A cryptic new Tsukumogami lurks in the night. Meanwhile, a darkness grows within Kotetsu as he is drawn into one battle after another.

When an invitation to entertain a nobleman arrives to Waka, the two are drawn into a test of their true nature. Can the two unveil the identity of their real enemy before it’s too late?

99 Spirits Drama Theater includes three bonus stories

Little Hanabusa: A story about Hanabusa, who turned back into a child from a little happening. While Komiya runs around trying to find a cure, Gijin happens across her. What will Gijin do, finding Hanabusa turned into a child?

Saki’s Present: The weasels have become upset because Saki seems to not be paying them much attention lately. She seems to be doing something in secret, but just what is the truth behind the matter?

Komiya’s Medicine Hunt: A story about Komiya trying to save Hanabusa after she suddenly collapses during an expedition. After learning of Hanabusa’s plight, the five gods pledge their support, but...

“Demon’s Bell gave us a chance to explore Kotetsu, Waka and their relationship further and have new adventures as we bring our 99 Spirits journey to a conclusion. Hope you have enjoyed it as much as we did.“ says Ozhan Sen, Art Lead.

The game is released on Steam and other leading digital distributors on February 23th. The retail price is $4.99, with a -10% launch week discount. Additionally, a 99 Spirits - Complete Collection will be made available for $27.99, including 99 Spirits, Artbook & Soundtrack Pack, Cage of Night and Weeping Demon's Bell.

Reviews

“99 Spirits has a great art direction, an original story and a unique gameplay that reminds to both Pictionary and Pokémon with a great result. If all indie Japanese indie games are this good I’ll start to learn the language ASAP. It can’t be missing in any indie game collection.”
Bit Maiden

“Without a shadow of doubt, 99 Spirits is one of the most imaginative and accomplished indie games on the market.”
True PC Gaming

“Mixing the puzzle and RPG genre along with some anime themed influences, 99 Spirits became an absorbing and addicting title that was nearly impossible for me to put down for too long.”
Moonlitasteria

About This Game

99 Spirits is an RPG/Puzzle game that revolves around the popular Japanese folklore of Tsukumogami, everyday objects coming alive on their 100th birthday.

Hanabusa is a young headstrong girl living in the Heian capital within medieval Japan. But when her mother is slain by evil spirits, her life turns into one of vengeance as she sets out to hunt and destroy the spirits.

During Hanabusa’s travels, she meets a white fox who turns out to be a servant of the mountain god. Hanabusa receives a special sword passed down from her mother, which gives her the ability to see the true forms of spirits to help slay them. Shortly after, a spirit claiming to be Hanabusa’s long-lost father, Hidetada, breaks her sword and leaves Hanabusa powerless and confused.

Now to mend her broken sword and learn the truth about her father, Hanabusa embarks on a journey to annihilate every last one of the evil spirits.

Key Features

Work out the true identity of your enemies in a unique battle system

Capture enemies, master their skills for battle and use them to solve puzzles on the field

Don't be expecting deep RPG elements. The game isn't amazing, it has some fun ideas and a decent amount of lukewarm positive aspects. For the price, eh... why not? I didn't regret getting it.

If you are thinking about buying it, please look into the combat system. It's strange and may not be to everyone's liking, but it is unique and interesting. But I would say that for the price, this game is certainly worth it.

The combat system works like this: You fight a monster in turns. You can only defeat monsters once they are identified. To do so you must guess their name. As you fight it, there are ways to obtain clues on the identity of the monster. Once you identify it, you can then actually kill the thing. You can block/counter your enemy's attacks with properly timed button presses. Other than that, it's pretty standard turn-based combat.

The graphics have a charm in their simplicity, but I do wish that the map-grid wasn't so baren looking sometimes. What you see in the steam screenshots is pretty much exactly what the game looks like. It's just enough for gameplay but not distracting.

The music, like the graphics, is charming and simple but gets somewhat repetative. You'll hear the same music for long stretches and it's just noticeable enough to get a bit annoying after playing for a long time.

As far as difficulty, the game is fairly easy and forgiving, but still just enough of a challenge to feel rewarding.

The story is pretty simple and enough to keep the game moving. Decent amount of tropes and some eye-rolling dialogue here or there, but it I did end up slightly invested in it... only slightly.

First thing, if you plan on playing this save often. My game crashed so many times, jeez.

With that out of the way, this game is very different. Different from what I've played before and different from what I was expecting. Maybe it's my fault for just taking a glance at it, but I was expecting some kind of typing game.

Instead each enemy is a mystery when first encountered, and you actually have to guess what it is (by guessing the word).

At first I thought it was boring, but the game opened up at chapter 3. After that it kept me entertained enough I suppose.

Plenty of reading, light rpg elements. Lots of RNG. Music was good. For how different it is, I believe this game is worth a try.

I found this game to be overall very enjoyable in short 30~40 minute bursts. The character design is excellent and the music is great and the storyline and dialog is very well written. It’s not the sort of game you spend 4 hours a day playing, it leans more to the casual “waiting between college classes” side of gaming. Highly recommended for anyone who is a fan of youkai (妖怪).

This is so cool. It's a wonderful combination of a RPG and a Visual Novel, that has you play a female role and save her home. I have yet to finish it, which demonstrates the complexity of the plot and how long it is. As I've mentioned in a previous review, I love RPGs that get me hooked on the story and VNs with more than one ending. This game has BOTH. Not only does it have both, it has side quests left, right and centre. Not only that, it has tons of achievements, some to do with the story, some not and an achievement for finding all of the endings.

My only gripe with this game, is the grinding. Which is what's currently holding me up in the game play.

99 Spirits is an overwhelmingly anime game. It even includes the untranslated Japanese version! The game is divided into visual novel, and turn based strategy segments.

While I am not an anime or visual novel fan, the gameplay half of 99 Spirits is what had me intrigued. Basically the player moves their character around on a chessboard sort of thing, trying to reach objectives, stores that sell items to improve stats, or dialog scenes. This phase of the game is turn based, and enemies will move as the player moves, making it possible to sometimes avoid combat through careful navigation.

Once a battle is initiated, the player uses a turn based system to attack and defend against the enemy. When enough damage is done, the player receives a hint to the enemy's name. This will be something like ‘Sh’ or ‘Digging’, to hint that it is a possessed shovel. When the player guesses the proper name, it can be defeated. This made 99 Spirits a lot more intellectual in its gameplay than most visual novels can offer.

I did not finish 99 Spirits, but I have been told it is worth completing for the story.

Okay at first the game will be a bit off but you kinda get used to it. The whole difficulty is the matter of finding and guessing the item. The game in itself is enjoyable but the guard times sometimes set me off. A 9.3/10. It had it's fine moments. I'll put that much. Fine story, great use of it, and a nice lot of characters.

So let me get this straight, you happened to be a young swordswoman who is traveling across Japan with a fox demon of some sort in order to find her dad while killing other demons possessing common household objects. I guess that sums up the basis of the story. I don't remember how long I have spent with 99 Spirits because I mostly played it offline when my internet was down for a period of time, but I still have not finish my first play through so keep that in mind.

The combat system pretty much consists of guessing a word through hints given to you when you attack the enemy and after you have successfully guessed the word, you are able to kill the enemy or capture the soul when given the opportunity, but guess the word incorrectly and you will take damage with no chance to negate it. Other than that, it is really just a QTE. In theory, it sounds like a good idea, but in practice, it gets repetitive pretty quickly because you are guessing the same enemy over and over again due to the limited enemy variety in each region, not to mention all the enemies feel very similar to one another. The boss fights completely enforces the idea of sitting through QTEs because they behave just like the normal enemies you have faced for the umpteenth time except they have maybe 10 to 20 times more health, has the ability to kill you in maybe 2 hits at most throwing in unblockable attacks every so often forcing you to stay in the defense stance around 80% of the time, and heal very frequently to extend the length of the battle. The movement for the world map is pretty standard with nothing special to make note of except for the hunger meter that does nothing except makes moving around the map slower than normal. Even if the hunger system did something to impact the game, it does not tell you what it even does and even if they do tell you, the game does a pretty bad job at it.

The soundtrack is, in my opinion, ok at best, but the battleground music can get really repetitive sometimes and you can even hear the where the track loops.

Perhaps the worst offender this game has is that it crashes very often if you don't know what is causing it to crash in the first place so if you are going to play this game, I suggest you head to the forums to look up on other people's experience so you hopefully won't have to deal with them too much.

I am really having a hard time on whether or not I should give a recommendation for 99 Spirits because it's game play feels lackluster in some areas in addition to the frequent crashing and a fairly iffy story, but it has an interesting idea with the combat system despite on its shaky execution and has some fairly interesting characters to meet. For $15, I think it's a hard sell for those who are skeptical about the gimmicky combat system, but if it goes on sale for maybe $10 or less, it's possible to take it into consideration. At the end of the day, I can't recommend 99 Spirits despite that fact that I had a decent time with 99 Spirits due to all of the problems I have stated before, but then again, it's probably a game that is best played in short bursts. If you do happen to take an interest in 99 Spirits, try the demo first before pulling the trigger.

99 Spirits is an ambitious title that eventually falls flat due to its cumbersome battle system. The storyline is great, and the characters are memorable. But when you are forced to execute the same battle commands again and again with very little variation, when you are forced to "discover" the same, old Tsukumagami again and again in battles you shouldn't skip as they help you level up -- the game becomes a chore. It's too bad, really, because there was a great game in the pipes somewhere, but along the way, it went awry. There is no reason why previously-discovered Tsukumagami couldn't have been revealed permanently, so that you are not forced to whittle away at its discovery every battle, "guessing" what is promptly known through repetition, and slogging through monotony.

A very original game with a few gameplay and functional flaws that may frustrate some.

I liked:-the combat and gem system is very original-the art style is great, and the story and characters are very interesting

Not too fond:-the battle music variety. There is only one combat track which loops. I ended up muting it.-New game+. It is merely a restart with no changes to enemies or difficulty, with your level and money carried over. At least it makes New game+ much faster to complete for the alternate endings.

Frustrating and irritating:-New game+. It resets your mastered spirit skills. The game already restricts your acquition of skills by limiting the number spirits you can hold in the duration of the game and the availability of spirits by location.-Kirikiri game engine bugs. Kirikiri is an extremely buggy engine that can make saving an irritant. Also it can crash the GUI and freeze the combat. Rotate your saves, and save often.

Bug workarounds:Save menu bug- When bringing up the save menu, the menu is blank and I can't access the first page or it brings up the Spirit book.Fix- Click on page one of the save menu which brings you to the Spirit book. Exit out of the Spirit book and open the save menu again. It should display properly.

Combat freeze- In combat, sometimes I cast an action and the game does not respond.Fix- Hope you have a recent save. You have to restart the game client.

All in all, a very intriguing game, if you are forgiving of poor New game+ balance and the various bugs of the Kirikiri engine.

"A JRPG, you say?"Well, yeah, sure, but not in the traditional sense of the term. This is a strange one indeed, but (mostly) in a good way.

This game has a very strong japanese mythology theme. You play a swordswoman, whose main goal is to fight Tsukumogami, strange creatures which take shapes of common everyday items, such as a jacket, a broom and so on. When you get to fight a Tsukumogami, instead of one of the traditional RPG battle systems, you need to zap the enemy with your special Gokon Sword in order to get clues about its identity and expose it. Once you exposed its identity (i.e. what item it really is), you need to hack it a few more times to finish it.

The thing is - all the clues are literal, in english and based on the japanese lore. For example, if you're fighting a broom Tsukumogami, the clues you get could be either letters from the item's name in uppercase (B or OO, for example), or details about the item itself, what it's being used for, what it's made of and so on ("wood", "cleaning" for example). Once you think you know the name, you "call it out" either by typing it on a virtual in-game keyboard, or by choosing it from a list you can get (and later upgrade for a price) as a part of the story.

If you're wrong, the enemy gets a bonus attack and you lose HP. If you got it right, the shroud is lifted and you get to see the enemy for what it really is. A few more hacks and slashes, and it's usually gone.

I've only been playing the game for 3-4 hours so far, so there might be more complicated stuff I haven't reached yet, but this is what it looks like, so far, and while it gets a little repetitive, it is fun.

99 Spirits takes place in medieval Japan in a city attacked by evil spirits. After her mother is killed in the attack, young Hanabusa becomes a warrior and dedicates her life to destroying the Tsukumogami. Fruitbat Factory has obviously taken great care with their work and the localisation is excellent. The English dialogue flows well and without error. Unfortunately, the original script provides little we haven't seen before, and the story holds only minor interest or intrigue.Unlike the story, the gameplay mechanics are fresh and new in their design and execution. The game follows a linear story in which you move Hanabusa from place to place and fight Tsukumogami as you go. The overworld maps function on a grid, and you click to move Hanabusa around to pick up items, fight spirits and move to the next map.They may not be exceptional, but the graphics are solid and aesthetically pleasing. Portraits during dialogue exude charm and aid in developing the characters' personality. The hand-drawn style matches the feel and setting of the game well and evokes a stylistic, historical drawing. The Tsukumogami spirits look distinctively evil, and the warping of everyday objects into these frightening spirits is executed with style.Like the art, the sound suits the game perfectly. The mystical, eastern-sounding tunes draw you into the game and succeed in setting the scene. The fast moving, high-pitched score used in battle adds to the tension and pressure of fighting each spirit and working to figure out their name. There is limited voice acting in the game, but all of it is well done. If you're looking for something new in your RPGs, then give 99 Spirits a shot. The puzzle-style battles are fun and interesting and allow you to forgive the less interesting aspects of the game. The localisation is excellent, even if the story isn't quite so interesting, and the sound and graphics are solid and pleasing. If you like RPGs and word puzzles, then you'll definitely enjoy 99 Spirits.

Sound and visuals are good, the story is great The gameplay, however, is special. With a semi-turn based puzzle combat system featuring rpg elements, this makes a really good game. Minor bugs and the required knowledge of English and some eastern culture may keep a lot of people from enjoying it, though. 6/10

A fun little JRPG with some distinctive mechanics. Word guessing is one of them, as is a timed-hits-like feature. Occasionally, some enemies or obstacles may even be integrated with the plot, such as "puzzle" bosses that query the details of a mystery. Mechanics are pretty solid, plot is reasonably interesting, music is quite decent too. It's a little tedious having to discard gemstones one by one when you run out of inventory space, but that's about my only complaint. This game's not the most epic of adventure tales, but it's definitely surprisingly fun to play.

Just make sure you use the gem upgrades to make the C command reveal a ton more hints at once. Four is good. If you're paying attention, you should rarely need more than that. And also get the Escape upgrades, so that you can stop attacking/defending immediately once a gem becomes available for use. And if the clues go by too fast, there's another upgrade for that. The game would probably be more tedious if I didn't get those, so I'm glad I got them. Oh, and buy the Spirit Indexes from the store -- if a spirit is in the list, you can just click the name and be done with it.

(Right-click to cancel if you don't want to upgrade a gem, by the way. I'm not sure the game makes that clear, but it's there. Though you can always redistribute all your upgrade points anyway.)

The game comes with both Japanese and English voicework (which is just battle grunts/lines anyway), as well as the fully Japanese original version.

99 Spirits introduces a unique new type of rpg. There are many good, as well as bad points to it.

First of, it is very extremist on difficulty, it is either really easy, or pretty hard. However the difficulty to it doesn't rely on lack of skill, it is mostly because of a low level. The game is pretty easy itself, but going too fast through it may cause it to be a headache. I remember that when I got to certain boss on my first playthough I had absolutely no skills or support from monsters, and I couldn't go back to catch more because I HAD to defeat the boss. Took me MANY tries to beat, so hear my advice ALWAYS be ready with a nice or decent "party".

Second, it is the gameplay itself, it can get really repetitive once you find all monsters of an area. And sometimes, when finding a monster for the first time, you have absolutely no idea what the monster is. Has anyone ever heard of a Torii? or a Naginata? Well it was the first time for me.

Also, there are some features of the game that are never explained to you, for example Starve and Food, the only thing these two do, is make your character move slower on the map the hungrier you are and viceversa, you can't die from starving though.

It has a very nice amount of characters, each different from the other (in the sense each NPC has her/his own personality). If something, I'd say this game is like a visual novel + a puzzle RPG style. In addition the soundtrack in the game is actually really good, but you might get tired of it as it will repeat itself several times on different areas (Same that happens with any song, the longer you hear it over and over, the more likely you'll start to hate it).

It is a very nice overall game, I don't really suggest it for its story, but for the experience of the game itself. And again, the game is easy to beat, but a little time consuming (especially if you want all achievements).

However, the game does fall short for the full price ($15). So if you can get it with discount or on a bundle, I'd say go for it. The best advice I can give you, is to try out the demo, that is the best way to tell if this game is or isn't for you.

The game is very original with an unique combat system, it also has a good storyline and art. The reason I'm not recommending this game is because in my opinion it's a total rip-off for the full price, you can get better for much less, but that's not even the point, the game get's really boring after a few minutes playing. The same unique and original battle system that I complimented above gets insanely repetitive and uninteresting, after you discover most of the spirits it just feels like an immense waste of time. The music also gets really repetitive and annoying.

EDIT: Holy crap. Towards the last few chapters the game is actually IMPOSSIBLE to beat! The enemies will heal faster than you can damage them for an infinite amount of time. I'm 7 hours deep into this game and if I want to even have a chance at progressing I will need to start all over again from chapter one just so I can grind and capture a different set of objects to battle with. If you want to see what I'm talking about, here is a 20 minute long video of me fighting an infinitely healing enemy http://youtu.be/TuahC5wsLAo

Old positive review (will totally revert back to this one if the game ever gets fixed because honestly it's fantastic at its core)

If you're not into word puzzles, visual novels & basic combat stay away from this. However, if you don't mind using your brain, have a good understanding of English (as well as some Japanese objects/locations) & do enjoy a good read every now and then this is for you.

I'm roughly a quarter of the way through this game and while I hated it at first and found the whole combat system to be annoying and rather boring, it has grown on me. The story is fantastic, I love the artwork and there is enough game here to make it more then just your typical 99% text visual novel!

Is it worth $10-$15? Ehh, probably not. If you can get it in an indie bundle or for under $6, don't hesitate!